is it possible to prove that planets (and/or stars) are always round (elliptical if you consider the spin)? Is there a set of equation that demonstrate that fluids (after all, molten rocks "floating" ...

Considering our Sun/stars (on the most basic terms) have often been referred to as a hydrogen fusion engines/machines... what type/class of engine/machine have scientists actually assigned to planets, ...

I've just read this article: http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/science-kepler-432b-new-super-jupiter-exoplanet-02490.html
And I wondered how this could be possible?
Maybe it's because this gas giant ...

I recently heard that a parachute opens up much faster on Mars than on Earth. Why is that the case?
More specifically, during a NASA Edge TV program, one of the scientists working on parachute tests ...

When astronomers detect an exoplanet using its transit and calculate its size to be, say twice the earths size, do they have any way of knowing that its actually not a slightly smaller planet with a ...

The core temperatures and the rate at which they emanate heat should correspond to their estimated age. Other forces may create some heat such as the tidal locking that is supposed to be the source of ...

Is it possible for a satellite undergoing the process to overshoot the required rotation rate for tidal locking? For example, if its rotation rate is being slowed, can it become slower than it needs ...

So you've got a protoplanetary disk and you're going to gravitate yourself some planets together. The disk is made up of the usual planetary system stuff, dust and gas and whatnot, orbiting a common ...

There is a panspermia theory which claims that life might have begun on Mars and I currently read a post that the human circadian rhythm is closer to the martian day length (about 25h) than the day ...

Assuming a Jupiter-like planet and an Earth-like planet (Except, say... half the mass of Jupiter), what would happen when the two collide?
For clarification: What would the actual collision be like?
...

So basically the question I posed myself a few days ago was for a torus shaped planet, what would the gravitational field be like inside the torus? After viewing some answers on the internet, (Gravity ...

I am a senior in high school, sixteen years old. I think differently than most in my class. Recently, I have been thinking about alternative causes for the rotation of our planets. My current thought ...

I understand that a hollow spherical shell of uniform density gives net zero gravitational attraction to objects inside it. So in vacuum, a ball at the centre of a spherical shell would not be stable ...